by Nicholas Keung
Months before landing in Toronto in April, Teresita Mariano already had a plan to prepare for Canada's labour market. By June, she had landed a job similar to one she'd had in the Philippines. That was no fluke. The 39-year-old engineer is among the first skilled immigrants to benefit from the Canadian Immigrant Integration Project in Asia, a $4.5 million, three-year pilot program that's Canada's response to all those surgeon-driving-a-taxi tales that have sullied this country's reputation as a good place to resettle. Like couples taking prenatal classes before the baby arrives, would-be newcomers to Canada in the skilled-worker class can now take "pre-arrival orientation" in Manila, Delhi and Hong Kong – and, starting this month, in Beijing, Gujarat and Punjab. "Our goal is to help (foreign-trained professionals) have a faster acquisition of appropriate employment by connecting with them and preparing them ahead of time, so they can hit the ground running once they arrive," explains project director Katrina Murray. Immigrants meet with counsellors at the overseas offices to devise a settlement plan while they're still waiting for medical and security clearance to immigrate, instead of wasting time and money catching up after they get to Canada. It seems to have worked for Mariano. By the time she moved to Canada, she had obtained her university transcripts, had her foreign credentials assessed, contacted settlement agencies online, researched prospective employers, posted her resumé on Workopolis and even checked out the TTC map. She won a job as a desktop publisher for a multinational consulting firm. Silvano Tocchi, a director of the foreign credential recognition division at Human Resources and Social Development Canada, says with an evolving labour market it's in the country's best interests to give newcomers like Mariano a helping hand. "It's better for them to be forewarned and forearmed than come and be disappointed," he notes. "It's a mitigating strategy."
Good preparation helps newcomers time their arrival so that they can immediately begin language training, or identify shortcomings in their qualifications and take correspondence courses before they leave, says Tom Owen of Toronto's World Education Services. Many newcomers face big delays when they get here, notes Owen, who points out that only 10 per cent of immigrants who ask his agency for a credential assessment do so while they're still overseas. "You can save anywhere between three weeks and two months on that if you actually have it done ahead of time," he says. The program, dubbed CIIP (ciip.accc.ca), is funded by Ottawa and delivered by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. It includes a day-long group workshop in the home country, divided by profession or province of destination, followed by 90 minutes of one-on-one counselling. Since its January inception, 1,000 skilled immigrants have voluntarily participated to learn about Canadian labour market trends, skills in demand in various regions, licensing procedures, and how to hook up with career bridging programs. Mariano's husband, Nathaniel, 40, says the couple was initially overwhelmed by all the information on the Internet. "People can give you an encyclopedia but you won't know what to do with it. You don't know what you don't know," says Nathaniel, an engineer who also attended the Manila workshop. "The people at the office explained to us the reality in Canada. It might make you think twice before coming, but they helped us come up with a plan," adds the father of two, whose immigration took five years to process. "Before that, we had not had a plan." Although an evaluation downgraded his degree from the Technological Institute of the Philippines to the level of a college diploma, Nathaniel, who is still job-hunting, says the workshop has opened up new options and given him hope. Josie Di Zio of COSTI, the lead Ontario settlement agency involved in the project, says the workshops may be brief but they're a good start. "We can now do the referrals as early as possible, so people can have a good, realistic understanding of their decision, and there won't be any surprises when they get here," explains Di Zio, whose organization has received 150 inquiries to date. When Wu Shao-bing, a teacher, and her husband, Jiang Zhao-hui, an IT specialist, took a trip from Shenzhen to the program's Hong Kong office in January, the quality of their spoken English was raised. That brought a referral to a Mississauga settlement agency for an English course, which they began soon after they arrived in May. "There is so much information out there and you don't know what is legitimate, what's not," the 30-year-old woman said in Cantonese. "But these people represent Canada. The counselling is free and you don't have to worry about being misinformed or scammed." CIIP is also trying to bring national employers on board to connect newcomers with fellow professionals, do online mentoring and, ideally, hook them up with job opportunities. "This fits well with our corporate values: diversity for growth and innovation," says Jenny Poulos, recruitment director at the Royal Bank of Canada, one of a handful of employers participating. "Through the project, we can help newcomers build their awareness of job opportunities, as well as the banking services and products out there, prior to their landing." Last month, Poulos boasts, one of the bank's Vancouver branches hired a newcomer from China, thanks to the CIIP network.
No comments:
Post a Comment